The most heavily populated city in Canada, Toronto is home to the CN Tower, the Hockey Hall of Fame, the biggest zoo in Canada, and the legendary PATH. It's also soon to be home to you and yours. But before you start scouring the MLS listings for the Toronto home or townhouse of your dreams, check out our city guide to make sure "T-Dot" is right for you (spoiler: it is).

Living in Toronto

On the scenic northwestern shores of Lake Ontario, you'll find a melting pot unlike any other in the Great White North. Statistically speaking, Toronto is the world's most diverse city, with immigrants accounting for roughly half its population. Strolling the streets of Toronto, you may get the feeling a colossal U.N. summit just let out, with Asians, Latinos, and Europeans rubbing elbows with Arabs, Africans, and every other ethnic origin under the sun. Unless you come from the
moon, Narnia, or Neverland, you'll find plenty of Torontonians with a background like yours.

The city's economy, meanwhile, is as diverse as its population. The undisputed commercial capital of Canada, the city is home to the Toronto Stock Exchange, the country's 5 largest banking headquarters, and a wide range of businesses in the telecommunications, medical, software production, education (let's go Toronto Varsity Blues!), aerospace, and engineering industries. No wonder the city occupies a seemingly permanent place as an "alpha world city" in the Globalization and World Cities Research Network's annual rankings.

Unsurprisingly, Toronto isn't defined by a single architectural style, but features a vast array of designs, from the distinct bay-and-gable houses in Old Toronto to the 1800-plus skyscrapers dotting the Financial District's skyline. But the city isn't entirely clad in iron and steel; it also boasts roughly 1600 parks covering 13 percent of its total land area. The city also plants nearly 100,000 trees every year to maintain its distinct, urban-forest vibe.

Getting Around

One benefit of living in Toronto is that you can usually save your gas guzzler for daytrips to Niagara Falls. A highly walkable city, Toronto also has the third largest public transit system in North America with more than 130 subway trains, 1800 buses, and nearly 250 streetcars. The GO Transit buses even service the outlying inner suburbs, making it easy for suburbanites to make the trek from their cozy homes in the 'burbs to their jobs in the big city.

If you'll be relying on public transit to bum around the not-so-mean streets of Toronto, get used to spending time in historic Union Station, as 96 percent of GO riders pass through its concourse. But the crown jewel of public transit in Toronto is the legendary PATH, a massive underground pedestrian walkway that connects more than 200,00 business commuters (and countless tourists) to more than 50 office towers, half a dozen major hotels, 5 subway stops, Union Station, and several entertainment complexes. PATH also features more than 1200 shops and services spanning a 30-kilometer stretch. Best yet, its elaborate underground infrastructure allows commuters to bum around town without having to brave the frigid winters and sweltering summers above them.

Neighbourhoods

Toronto is home to a vast array of unique and eclectic neighbourhoods. If you want to live right in the hopping thick of things, concentrate on finding some prime real estate in historic Old Toronto, the city's most densely populated area, near the urban core. Old Toronto includes the historically affluent residential enclaves Yorkville, Deer Park, the Annex, and Casa Loma. These neighbourhoods feature a mixture of duplex and triplex homes, luxury condos, and gargantuan Edwardian, Georgian, Tudor, and English cottage-style homes. Luxurious, family-friendly, and highly walkable, Toronto homes, condos, and townhouses in these areas frequently disappear from the MLS listings as quickly as they appear.

Immediately east and west of downtown, you'll find several hip, artsy neighbourhoods like Kensington Market, Cabbagetown, and Riverdale that are tailor-made for young urban professionals and artsy types. The city center is also the main hub of multiple ethnic groups and includes Little Italy, Little India, Portugal Village, and the Danforth, a recently-gentrified neighbourhood with strong ties to the city's Greek community

Toronto house hunters who prefer tranquility over hustle and bustle may prefer one of the laid-back outer suburbs like Pickering, Markham, or Brampton, among others. If you wish to reside on the doorstep of the big city without being caught right in the middle of it, inner suburbs like Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough are ideal. These neighbourhoods consist largely of modest, single-family dwellings, townhomes, and apartment buildings that attract a lot of middle-class, working professionals.

No matter which part of Toronto you choose to call home, you can rest assured you are residing in one of the country’s safest areas. Crime rates are generally low throughout the entire city, which is why Toronto has earned a reputation as one of North America’s least dangerous cities. Unless you do something foolish like where a Canadiens’ jersey outside the Air Canada Centre, you should be in good shape.

Entertainment

Toronto has frequently been cited as one of the world's "most livable cities," but what exactly does that mean? For one, it means that whether you're 9 or 90, single or married, an early bird or night owl, you will never run out of things to do.

Just a few of the city's notable entertainment options include a world-class zoo, amusement park, science center, a super-mall that draws a million visitors each week, and dozens of art galleries and museums. Seven professional sports franchises call Toronto home, including, most notably, the Maple Leafs, who have hoisted the Stanley Cup 13 times. Forget Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam. Maple Leafs hockey is the true religion of the Toronto masses.

Night owls will be glad to know that Toronto continues to hop and pop after the sun goes down. The West Queen West, Ossington, and Parkdale areas are lined with pubs and dance clubs, while the Entertainment District (despite the fact that it’s lost momentum as a party destination in recent years) is still a great place to catch a live show.

Toronto is also a music lover's Valhalla. Seldom does a week go by without an A-list mainstream act playing one of the major downtown venues, while numerous eclectic, small music venues across the city play host to both established and up-and-coming indie acts nightly. The city also hosts 3 legendary annual music festivals -- Canadian Music Fest, North by Northeast, and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival -- that draw tourists in droves and combine to feature more than 2,000 bands.

Toronto is also situated just a 90-minute drive from the majestic Niagara Falls. What better way to escape the chaos of the big city than by kicking back at one of nature’s most miraculous locations and watching 750,000 gallons of water flow over its cliffs each second? Except for watching the Leafs hoist the Cup for the first time since ’67, it doesn't get any better than that.

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